So I have been reading a few photography magazines which keep referring to raw converters as separate software programmes which are used prior to using normal editing software.

I have been shooting in RAW from my EOS 60D, and importing these RAW files into Lightroom 3, I then edit them straight away within lightroom. Once I have finished editing, I export to JPEG. The end result is that the JPEG's are about 9-12mb per photo after they are exported (with the original CR2 files being about 20mb)

I wanted to clarify if Lightroom 3 is a raw converter? or am I missing a step and therefore not getting the best quality from my RAW files?

Sorry if this is a stupid question guys! but I'm really starting to doubt myself now!!

I want to clarify your reason for asking...you notice a big difference in file size from the original RAW to JPEG so you are concerned that you are getting all of the best quality from the RAW to JPEG?

Yes, you are getting the best from your JPEG after exporting from RAW (dependent on your export settings). A RAW file has A LOT of information in it, this is what allows the additional editing benefits of shooting in RAW. JPEG is a file format that, for lack of better words, keeps the least amount of info possible. This is why shooting in JPEG, you lose some editing capabilities. Once you have edited your RAW file and happy with the results, when you export to JPEG, it will be a lot smaller of a file size because all of the additional info the RAW file was holding is stripped out leaving the bare minimum for that JPEG. Depending on your compression and file size options during your export will make that file size vary.

No problem. And yes, for lack of better words, Lightroom is a RAW converter. Calling it a RAW editor is more appropriate. Any software that lets you edit a RAW file will let you export or convert it to a more usable format, Lightroom, Photoshop, Canon's RAW editor, many others. I would look at something called a RAW converter as a program that takes a RAW file right off the camera and spits out a JPEG which then would negate the best part about shooting RAW which is editing it

Yes that sounds right on the file size. I actually edit my Public Affairs RAW's that are 21-meg then when I export drop them all the way to 900-kb for Facebook.